TRU Board Notes – 3/19/2018

At the request of our members the TRU Board will be releasing their monthly board call minutes and notes. View all of the TRU archived minutes or read on for the most recent notes:

Roll Call

Young

Dodge

Yeoman

Green

Tate

Tomsak

Turner

James

Parker

Regrets

None

Followups

WD3

Young: The WD3 teams are completing their schedule but most of the teams have transferred their players to other teams. Only one team has a roster of 15+. As we would like teams playing 15s at Championships, I’d like to propose that we have the WD3 winner play the WD2 5th place at the TRU Championships as an exhibition match. At this time I don’t see another WD3 team that has 15 players CIPP’d to have a true D3 championship.

Tate: I think you are on the right track, let’s keep watching rosters as they have a few matches left. Otherwise I think the WD3 vs WD2 5th place sounds like a good solution.

Foundation

Tate: After some discussion with Dodge we are thinking that we will wind down the existing 501c3 application and recreate as a successor of the TRU. The big difference is that the TRU is no longer the only member but rather the new organization would have the club as members and they would elect a board. This is the thought process that I’ve been going down, I’m not sure that there is a big benefit tous creating more complexity and more orgs on top of our existing structure. I do think it’s important that we have a 501c3 option. This gives donors the peace of mind and a committee or board will manage the fund.

Dodge: This would require a full on bylaws change and approval from the members.

Tate: Yes, correct.

Turner: In doing this, what needs to be changed in order to not raise red flags?

Tate: I’m working with the lawyer on that, I’ve asked the same question.

Turner: Is there a timeframe for this?

Tate: The lawyer said he would get back to me in a few weeks on that particular question. If we go forward with the same plan we have, we should be able to file the paperwork before the end of April.

Young: We’ve negotiated a special room rate at the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel Austin and that includes a block of rooms. We’re encouraging teams to book rooms ASAP as there are several large events in Austin that weekend (most notably the iHeart Country Festival and most hotels are already booked up).

Tate: Yes, we are being held to a hotel block and we want to encourage clubs to reserve ASAP.

Turner: How far apart is the fields and the hotel?

Tate: About 6-7 miles, guessing 10-15 minutes.

Streaming Bids

Young: We received four bids and we’ve narrowed it down to one. We will stream everything on the main field on our Youtube channel and tape the matches on field 2. Field 2 will be uploaded to Youtube at a later date. Finalizing contract this week or next.

Kick-off times

Young: I’ve put some times down, just want to get some feedback.

Tate: It’s a good start.

Dodge: Perhaps we should table this until our next call; we’ll have a better idea of what teams are in.

Young: Sounds good.

HOF

Recognition

Young: I’m wanting to recognize the HOF members at the RRRC Championships. Get them a polo and recognize them at half-time of a match. Good idea? Bad idea?

Tate: Yes, I think that is a great idea. Let’s put that on the last match of the day on pitch 1.

TRU Championships Hotel

Young: Pending, but will be announced soon.

Dues Increase

Tate: Nothing new here, IF we decide to do something about a dues increase we need to make that decision by the end of June. USA Rugby sets their dues cycle during that time and we could lose the window to make this change.

Competitions

2/17 Tyler vs Fort Worth (Tyler forfeit due to numbers)

Young: I’ve talked with both teams and they appear to be working on a reschedule date.

2/24 Reds III vs Alliance II (rained out, will be rescheduled)

3/10 DARC vs Tulsa (Tulsa cancelled due to low numbers, will be rescheduled)

Young: I believe these guys owe the $50 late fee AND the referee cost.

Tate: Yes, the referee cost is only if TRRA had assigned a referee and the notice was not sufficient. This was notified on Saturday morning, correct?

Turner: Yes.

Tate: The key here is that we don’t want to hit the clubs up for punishment but the members shouldn’t have to subsidize the referee cost.

Young: Will check with Scott on if these will be billed.

Green: If the game is still on WTR by 9pm on WED and hasn’t been changed with the form we WILL bill for it. Especially in the North we have five active referee, we can’t afford this.

Young: Ok, I will send out an invoice for this one and the 3/10 OKC vs Dallas Quins II.

Dodge: The MD1 playoff competition has agreed to subsidize Glendale’s travel for the playoffs. Glendale would also give up any home playoff opportunity and they would go to their union to request a playoff grant. Glendale recently received a $1,925 grant from Rocky Mountain Rugby Union, which will be put back into the pot and reduce all RRRC D1 Club’s subsidy obligations. I would like to apply to TRU to match this amount in support of the RRRC D1 competition. This would cut each TRU D1 Club’s subsidy down to $608.33. If Rocky Mountain can provide $1,925 to their only D1 team, hopefully TRU can see its way clear to provide the same amount to the 5 D1 teams that are its members. This agreement triggers if Glendale is in the top 4 Clubs after this coming weekend’s matches. CMS has not been fully updated with last Saturday’s matches, but Glendale is currently in 4th, and tied Little Rock (which is in 5th) last Sat. Glendale hosts the Harlequins this Saturday (3/24), and I expect they may move into 3rd, or at least stay in 4th after that match. In short, it appears the attached agreement will come into play. Any questions or comments?

Dodge: I would like to make a motion that the TRU approve a grant of $1,925 that would go towards subsidizing Glendale’s travel.

Tate: For consideration, amongst the five TRU clubs we have (as of Mar 8) 405 CIPP’d players. That means those players have paid in ~$18k into the TRU. I bring this up because we would be potentially giving playoff grants and this request is certainly in the realm of reasonable.

Dodge: I’d like to also point out that Glendale has put in quite a bit of money towards travel to participate in the RRRC.

Tate: I’d also say it’s worth noting that we asked the Dallas clubs to give up home matches in order to help Little Rock with their transition to D1. So Reds/Quins have played away twice and Huns/Blacks travelled to Dallas. I’m personally in favor of approving this grant.

Tate: I will second the motion. Do we have any further questions or discussion?

Parker: If Western Playoffs are in our region, will we still give grants?

Tate: We have in the past, this is something we may want to consider though.

Tomsak: If no more discussion, I move to vote?

Tate: Ok, do we have any objections to the grant?

Turner: I don’t have an objection, but I’ve asked in the past why aren’t these financial grants brought up before? I’d like the opportunity to review the budget etc.

Tate: I found out this afternoon.

Dodge: The information about the grant from Rocky Mountain was sent to me late last week. I could have sent it out earlier but I did not. I apologize.

Tate: No objection then, we will consider the motion passed. APPROVED.

Young: Luke sent this to me earlier today and I’d never seen it! I can’t put anything else on my plate right now but perhaps we share this out to the members and let them take a stab? The beauty of Wikipedia is that anyone can edit, so this could be something our members could be passionate about?

Tate: Wow, I’ve never seen that either. Yes, this seems like something that could be crowdsourced but we do want to check it periodically to make sure it’s accurate.

Young: I can do that, just can’t take on the entire project. I’ll also put up a post and see if any members want to take a stab at it as well.

New Business

Disciplinary Distinction of Matches

Turner: After a decision was made, I was looking for guidance on number of matches given in a suspension. The World Rugby policy is that they won’t make a distinction between friendlies, tests etc. Our DC does seem to make a distinction though?

Tate: I know that Scot makes a distinction between matches that are on the schedule vs matches that are not. He uses CMS for this, the key is that the match has to be on the official schedule. This is to prevent clubs from adding last minute matches to help satisfy a suspension.

Turner: I understand that, Scot told me that he does make a distinction. We need some sort of guidelines that tell us what the rules are.

Tate: I will take that up with Scot and we will follow up on our next call. Or we may resolve it by email before then. I was not aware that was the standard that he was using.

USA Rugby Congress Recall Vote

Yeoman: I wanted to make sure that no one had questions about the recent recall vote?

Turner: Who didn’t show up?

Yeoman: Your TX reps were there.

Dodge: Is there any sort of rehabilitation plan for RIM?

Yeoman: There is a group being organized to help work on a plan of reconciliation plan.